Enjoy more photos of the James B. Freedman Pitch Deck ribbon cutting
By Carolyn Gray Anderson
On May 4, 2017, UCLA Anderson proudly cut the ribbon on the new James B. Freedman Pitch Deck, which resides within the walls of the recently constructed UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator. Wielding the scissors was Freedman himself, with family and an esteemed group of friends looking on. The ceremony marked another chapter in a long and mutually beneficial relationship between Freedman and his b-school alma mater.
Jim Freedman (’78) is managing director, chairman and founding principal of Intrepid, a Los Angeles-based investment banking firm. Senior Associate Dean Al Osborne — Freedman’s former professor and mentor to this day, alongside whom he’s served on the board of the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurship and & Innovation since 1993 and UCLA Anderson’s Board of Advisors since 2001 — recently remarked to Freedman: “‘Intrepid’ is apt. It’s the nature of your success.”
Dean Judy Olian added: “If our students and alumni seek a prime example of continued engagement with UCLA Anderson, they need look no further than Jim Freedman.” He has given his time, advice and financial support since shortly after his graduation from Anderson.
Since Freedman walked into Osborne’s microeconomics class in 1976, he has gained more than 30 years of investment banking and corporate finance experience. He is an expert in the financial aspects of corporate strategy and has acted as the principal financial advisor in hundreds of capital raisings and mergers and acquisitions transactions ranging in value from $20 million to $1 billion.
“I was a finance major at Anderson and in my second year I interviewed for financial analyst positions at large institutions,” he recalls. But Freedman says he felt something “disingenuous” about working in a big firm. He describes a moment of crisis that saw him sequestered in the library for four hours, during which he says he became “introspective about what I liked and what I was good at. It was a momentous time, very revealing.”
He mapped out the criteria that would govern his future career decisions.
“I decided I wanted to take more risk with a smaller company. I wanted to work in finance because I had the talent for it. I wanted to work on a close-knit team with people I enjoy and I knew I wanted the chance to make money for the first time.” He accepted a position at a smaller firm, where he became vice president in charge of corporate development and a commercial lending division.
But Freedman’s entrepreneurial instincts soon led him off the traditional corporate path.
In 1982, he founded Barrington Associates. “It was the hardest thing I’d ever done,” he says. It took seven or eight years before the company showed sufficient profits for success. Despite setbacks, he persisted in believing he could succeed because, as he says, “Failure would have meant going to work for a big firm.”
He sold Barrington Associates to Wells Fargo Securities in 2006. Then came Intrepid, whose raison d’être is to honor the value and hard work of entrepreneurs in their biggest sale or financing transactions.
“I am constantly inspired by the enthusiasm, perseverance and success of entrepreneurs,” says Freedman, whose philanthropy and board service reach across education, cancer research and environmental conservation. As Osborne says, “The quality of the donor is as important as the amount of the donation.”
Freedman enjoys a 40-year relationship with his first professor at UCLA Anderson, a connection that plays a crucial part in cultivating his loyalty. Freedman also believes fundamentally in supporting the kind of research and education that lead to next-level thinking. The school’s centers of excellence, like Price, are intermediaries between students and industry, with resources and programming worthy of funding. He is motivated by the fact that UCLA Anderson is self-supporting.
He speaks with great humility about the late Marion Anderson’s transformative gift to the school. “We may not have $100 million,” he says of himself and fellow alumni, “but what can we do to give back? Innovation and entrepreneurship separate the U.S. from the rest of the world. I hinge a lot of hope on the Anderson Venture Accelerator as the birthplace of the best new ideas.”
It’s fair to say UCLA Anderson is still influencing Freedman’s life and professional decisions. “I’d been wrestling for a while,” Freedman says. “I wanted to give a bigger gift to Anderson. As soon as I made that commitment I felt really good. It’s extremely energizing.”
The James B. Freedman Pitch Deck is so named because Freedman’s donation will support programmatic and strategic operating efforts in the Anderson Venture Accelerator and provide students the tools they need to incubate game-changing organizations. He admits, “The name really grabbed me. I’ve had to pitch my whole life! It’s a valuable skill.”
Jim Freedman’s gift to the UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator is part of UCLA Anderson’s $300 million Into The Next campaign. This campaign is part of the university’s broader $4.2 billion Centennial Campaign, which culminates in 2019 with the 100th anniversary of UCLA’s founding. Learn more at anderson.ucla.edu/give.
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Posted by: chrispinus Kulenya | 07/02/2017 at 12:20 AM